Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington ( Washington DC , April 29, 1899 - New York , May 24 , 1974 ) was an American jazz pianist , bandleader and composer . Content verbergen * 1 Life * 2 Oeuvre ** 2.1 Compositions ** 2.2 Important work and live registrations ** 2.3 tributes * 3 Band Members ** 3.1 First occupation ** 3.2 1923 ** 3.3 1926 ** 3.4 1928 ** 3.5 1932 ** 3.6 1940 * 4 Radio 2 Top 2000 * 5 References * 6 Literature Life Duke Ellington at a concert in the Netherlands in 1939 Ellington was born the son of the headwaiter James Edward Ellington, who once in the White House was working and then a catering service drove. His father tried to educate children as was customary in those days, in a bourgeois middle class family. His first piano lessons the young Ellington was seven years old his mother Daisy Kennedy Ellington. Initially, he had little fun and the lessons were stopped, but when he had heard the pianist Harvey Brooks at the age of fourteen games kindled his interest. Because of his portly appearance he was called by his classmates in his youth "Duke" (Duke). His career as a professional musician began when he was seventeen years old. At the age he went with his friend Arthur Whetsol to New York and joined the group of Elmer Snowden , the Washington Black Sox. After problems with Snowden was Ellington elected the new leader of the band, now called "The Washingtonians". They played in different clubs and toured until 1927 as a dance orchestra through New England . When the then-famous King Oliver , the famous Cotton Club (New York) left Ellington was there with his band as house orchestra come to work. When "Duke Ellington and his Jungle Band" he gained national fame by many radio broadcasts from the club in Harlem were made. During this period, Ellington was given the opportunity to try out many different styles. He experimented in his compositions, many with tonality, with trumpet blare , with dampers and growling saxophones (Jungle Style). Then in 1931, Ellington left the Cotton Club , he was one of the most famous African-Americans ; He produced a lot of work to record labels and movie studios. He toured with his band by the US and Europe. In the sixties he made a world tour. Throughout his life he continued to experiment and he worked with the most progressive musicians of his time such as John Coltrane and Charles Mingus Duke Ellington in 1965 He reached in the forties with his band heights by composing specially for each part in his orchestra and arranging. A key influence here was his friendship with the pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn , which in the thirties had joined the band. The piece Take the A Train which is often attributed to Ellington was in fact composed by Strayhorn. When the popularity of Swing waned and his bandmates were other roads remained Ellington find new forms that he brought implemented with opportunity musicians. In his late work he composed many long stretches where he oriented himself to classical music, such as Black, Brown and Beige (1943) and Such Sweet Thunder (1957), based onWilliam Shakespeare . He made a Big Band version of the Peer Gynt Suite (1960). In 1956 he made a comeback because a live performance at the plate he published his composition Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue . This work was a combination of two older pieces ( Diminuendo in Blue Unden Crescendo in Blue ) and was a very long tenor sax solo performed by Paul Gonsalves at the Newport Jazz Festival . Critics sometimes felt that Ellington had given in his long compositions the essence of jazz in favor of an artificial classical music. Duke Ellington was known for his vanity and his authoritarian way of dealing with band members and his family. He forbade his sister to leave the house unaccompanied. His son confirmed that Ellington ruled with an iron hand. In 1965 Ellington for the Pulitzer Prize nomination, which he did not win. His comment was ironic then that fate was pleasing to him because it ensured that he would not soon be famous. President Nixon awarded the''Presidential Medal of Freedom'' from Duke Ellington (1969) On April 24, 1969 Ellington received for his work the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Richard Nixon . In 1973 he was inducted into the French Legion of Honor .Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974 of pneumonia. He was buried at the Woodlawn Friedhof in the Bronx in New York. In 1997, founded a statue created by sculptor Robert Graham commemorating Ellington in Central Park at the height of the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. In his hometown of Washington, DC, there is a school, the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which gifted students preparing for a career in the arts. Duke Ellington was founded in 1932 Freemason . Oeuvre Duke Ellington was a versatile jazz composer whose influence on music from the twenties and sixties of the 20th century was considerable. He is considered one of the greatest American composers. His great successes Take the A Train, Satin Doll, Rockin 'in Rhythm, Mood Indigo, Caravan and Sophisticated Lady. In 20s and 30s he worked together with Irving Mills , the most since 1930 with Billy Strayhorn. Many of his compositions were specifically attributed to certain musicians of his orchestra: Johnny Hodges , Bubber Miley , Cootie Williams , Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton , Barney Bigard , Ben Webster , Harry Carney , Sonny Greer , Otto Hardwick and Wellman Braud . One of the best known of these pieces is Concerto for Cootie (1940). Some musicians from his band reached stardom himself as Jimmy Blanton and Ben Webster. Ellington also wrote film scores for Black and Tan Fantasy (1929), Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and Paris Blues (1961) (with the actors Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians). Compositions Some of the more than two thousand compositions are known from Duke Ellington: * East St. Louis Toodle-Oo 1927 * Black & Tan Fantasy 1927 * Black Beauty 1928 * Creole Love Call 1928 * Jubilee Stomp 1928 * The Mooche 1929 * Dreamy Blues / Mood Indigo 1931 * Rockin 'in Rhythm 1931 * Creole Rhapsody 1931 * It Do not Mean a Thing (If It Is not Got That Swing) 1932 * Drop Me Off in Harlem in 1933 * Sophisticated Lady 1933 * Daybreak Express 1934 * Delta Serenade 1935 * In a Sentimental Mood 1935 * Reminiscing in Tempo 1935 * Clarinet Lament 1936 * Caravan 1937 * Azure 1937 * Diga Diga Doo 1937 * Blue Reverie 1937 * Pyramid 1938 * Prelude to a Kiss 1938 * I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart 1938 * Battle of Swing 1939 * Blue Light in 1939 * Subtle Lament 1939 * Sergeant was Shy 1939 * Ko-Ko 1940 * Concerto for Cootie 1940 * Cottontail 1940 * All Too Soon 1940 * Warm Valley 1940 * Across the Track Blues 1940 * Never no lament (do not get around much anymore) 1940 * Take the "A" Train 1941 * I Got it Bad (and That Is not Good) 1941 * Just Squeeze Me (But Do not Tease Me) 1941 * Moon Mist 1941 * Chelsea Bridge 1941 * Perdido 1942 * I'm Beginning to See the Light 1944 * Perfume Suite 1944 * Diminuendo in blue 1946 * Harlem 1950 * Lonesome Valley 1956 * A Drum Is a Women 1956 * Monologue 1957 * Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald in 1957 * Satin Doll 1958 * Midnight Indigo 1959 * Such Sweet Thunder 1959 * Sunswept Sunday 1959 Important works and live recordings * Black, Brown, and Beige 1945 * Newport Jazz Festival Suite 1956 * A Drum Is a Woman 1956 * Royal Ancestry (Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald) 1957 * Shakespearean Suite 1957 * Toot Suite 1958 * Jump for Joy 1959 * Anatomy of a Murder 1959 * The Ellington Suites (incl. Queens Suite) 1959 * Nutcracker Suite 1960 * Paris Blues 1961 * The Far East Suite 1964 * The Second Sacred Concert 1967 * And His Mother Called Him Bill 1967 * Francis A. Sinatra & Edward K. Ellington (1968, with Frank Sinatra ) * New Orleans Suite 1971 edit Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the height of 6535 Hollywood Blvd. * Dave Brubeck wore "The Duke" (1954) on to Ellington, making it a standard was and retreaded by others, both during Ellington's life (such as Miles Davis on Miles Ahead , 1957) and after his death (eg by George Shearing on I Hear a Rhapsody: Live at the Blue Note, 1992). The album The Real Ambassadors includes a vocal version of the song "You Swing Baby (The Duke)", with texts by Iola Brubeck, Dave Brubeck's wife. It is recorded as a duet between Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae . This song is dedicated to Duke Ellington. * Miles Davis made his half-hour elegy "He Loved Him Madly" (on Get Up with It ) as a tribute to Ellington a month after his death. * Stevie Wonder wrote the song " Sir Duke "as a tribute to Ellington in 1976. * Joe Jackson interprets Ellington's work on "The Duke" (2012) 1 with surprising new arrangements and unexpected collaborations with Iggy Pop , Sharon Jones , Zuco 103and Steve Vai . There are hundreds of albums dedicated to the music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by famous and less famous artists. The best known include Sonny Stitt , Thelonious Monk , Dizzy Gillespie , Tony Bennett , Claude Bolling , Oscar Peterson , Toshiko Akiyoshi , Dick Hyman , Joe Pass , Joe Jackson , Milt Jackson , Earl Hines , André Previn ,World Saxophone Quartet , Ben Webster , Zoot Sims , Kenny Burrell , Lambert, Hendricks and Ross , Martial Solal , Clark Terry and Randy Weston . Band Members [ edit ] First occupation * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Arthur Whetsol - Trumpet * Elmer Snowden - Banjo and bandleader * Sonny Greer - Drums 1923 * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Bubber Miley - Trumpet * Elmer Snowden - Banjo and bandleader * Charlie Irvis - Trombone * Sonny Greer - Drums 1926 * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Harry Carney - Saxophone * Bubber Miley - Trumpet * Fred Guy - Banjo * "Tricky Sam" Nanton - Trombone * Sonny Greer - Drums * four unnamed musicians 1928 * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Harry Carney - Saxophone * Johnny Hodges - Saxophone * Barney Bigard - Clarinet * Cootie Williams - Trumpet * Fred Guy - Guitar & Banjo * "Tricky Sam" Nanton - Trombone * Sonny Greer - Drums * four unnamed musicians 1932 * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Harry Carney - Saxophone * Johnny Hodges - Saxophone * Barney Bigard - Clarinet * Cootie Williams - Trumpet * Fred Guy - Banjo * "Tricky Sam" Nanton - Trombone * Lawrence Brown - Trombone * Sonny Greer - Drums * four unnamed musicians 1940 * Duke Ellington - Piano * Otto Hardwick - Saxophone * Harry Carney - Saxophone * Johnny Hodges - Saxophone * Ben Webster - Saxophone * Barney Bigard - Clarinet * Cootie Williams - Trumpet * Rex Stewart - Trumpet * Fred Guy - Guitar * "Tricky Sam" Nanton - Trombone * Lawrence Brown - Trombone * Juan Tizol - Trombone * Jimmy Blanton - Bass (+1941) * Sonny Greer, Sam Woodyard - Drums * two unnamed musicians * Billy Strayhorn - Arranger For a complete list of the musicians in the bands of Ellington, see List of Duke Ellington orchestra Radio 2 Top 2000 [ edit ] edit # ↑ Joe Jackson - The Duke (2012) . Music Meter (23 June 2012) Literature * (S) Stanley Dance: The world of Duke Ellington, Scribner's Sons, 1970 / Da Capo Press, 2000 * (S) Derek Jewell: Duke: a portrait of Duke Ellington, WW Norton & Company, 1977 / Pavilion 1986 * (S) Mercer Ellington, Stanley Dance: Duke Ellington in person: an intimate memoir, Houghton Mifflin, 1978 * (S) Ron Frankl, Nathan I. Huggins: Duke Ellington: bandleader and composer (Black Americans of Achievement), Chelsea House Publishers, 1989 * (S) Gene Brown: Duke Ellington, Silver Burdett Press, 1991 * (S) John Edward Hasse: Beyond category-the life and genius of Duke Ellington, Simon & Schuster, 1993 / Da Capo Press 1995 * (S) Ken Rattenbury: Duke Ellington, jazz composer, Yale University Press, 1993 * (S) Peter Lavezzoli: The king of all, Sir Duke Ellington and the artistic revolution, Continuum Int. Publ. Group, 2001 * (S) Ken Vail: Duke's diary: the life of Duke Ellington, 1927-1950, Part 1, Scarecrow Press, 2002 * (S) Ken Vail: Duke's diary: the life of Duke Ellington, 1950-1974, part 2, Scarecrow Press, 2002 * (S) Richard Terrill: Duke Ellington African-American biographies), Raintree Paperback, 2003 * (S) Stuart A. Nicholson: Reminiscing in pace: A portrait of Duke Ellington * (De) Terkel (Louis) Studs: Giants of Jazz Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-86150-723-4 * (De) Mercer Ellington: Duke Ellington - Eine Biographie Rüschlikon-Zürich, 1980, ISBN 3-275-00748-3 * (The) James Lincoln Collier: Duke Ellington Jazz Genius of Vienna, 1989, ISBN 3-85445-045-1 * (De) Darmstädter Beiträge zur Jazz Forschung, Vol. 6: Duke Ellington und die Folgen Hofheim, 2000, ISBN 3-923997-91-4 Category:American big band leader Category:American jazz composer Category:20th-century composer Category:American jazz pianist Category:Duke Ellington Category:1899 births Category:1974 deaths